Need of Inspiration in Preaching—Growth of the Work of the Lord—Distribution of Responsibility—Self-dependence Necessary—The Cause and the People Are Being Tested—Existence of the Work a Proof of Its Divinity—Its Completeness—A Powerless Christianity—Sentiments of the Saints in Regard to Moralityites

In standing up to address you this afternoon, I desire an interest in
your faith and prayers, that I may be led to speak upon those subjects
that will be best adapted to you and your circumstances. I believe it
to be our privilege when we come together, as we have this afternoon,
with our hearts united, desirous before God for His blessing, that the
very things—that is, the very doctrines and instructions and counsel
that are needed by us, and that are best adapted to our circumstances
and condition, will be given unto us by the Holy Spirit. It is for
this purpose we meet together. I never did feel satisfied in attending
meetings and listening to instructions, and going away feeling
unrefreshed and without being edified and strengthened in the
principles of the everlasting Gospel; I do not think that it is right
that we should thus meet and thus separate. God has made promises unto
His people. If His people do their part He will fulfill those
promises; He will give that portion of His Spirit that is necessary to
impart unto them everything that their circumstances may require. I
think it wrong that men should prepare themselves beforehand to speak
to the people. I believe that God has given unto us the correct rule,
the rule that He gave to His ancient disciples—“to take no thought
beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds
continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very
hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” When the time
should come for His servants to address the people, He would give unto
them the very things that were needed. How do I know, how does any
other man in this congregation know the thoughts and the fears and the
wants of you who are here today? There may be souls here hungering
for the word of God, tried and tempted in many directions, annoyed and
perplexed with the cares of life and with those anxieties that are
connected with our earthly existence. Who shall tell these souls that
which they need? Can any man out of his own wisdom, from the depths of
his own thoughts, give the needed strength and comfort to
those hungry souls? It is impossible. God must do it. God must pour
out His Holy Spirit. God must help as he has promised to do, and we
His children must put ourselves in a position to be helped so that we
can claim the blessing.

These people continually need strength from the Lord. There has never
been a day, nay, not an hour, from the commencement of this work upon
the earth in these last days that the Latter-day Saints have been
destitute of the counsel of heaven, of the word of God, and of the
guidance of that Holy Spirit that God has promised to bestow upon His
faithful children. Having thus been led in the past it is still
essential that we be thus led in the future, that we may live by every
word that proceedeth from the mouth of God—not that proceeded from His
mouth 1,800 years ago, but that proceeds from His mouth today, in
this year of our Lord 1883. And we need it just as much today as we
ever did. We need the direct interposition of God's providence in our
behalf, and we need the assistance of His Holy Spirit; we need His
word, and His blessing, and His power, and His direct intervention in
our behalf as much today as this Church did fifty years ago, or as
the Church did 1850 years ago. It is indispensably necessary for our
progress, for our advancement in the things that pertain to
righteousness, in the knowledge of God, that we should be thus
assisted and upheld and inspired.

This great work with which we are connected is becoming so extensive,
is spreading out in so many directions, that it needs more of the
manifestation of God's power and greater faith on the part of the
people to carry it forward in the earth. It needs greater faith on the
part of those who bear any portion of the responsibility of the
Priesthood of the Son of God, because they have now to act in
capacities that heretofore they did not act in. It seems only a little
while ago that we had but one Stake of Zion. We had but one High
Council, and the Presidency of the Church presided over that High
Council. Every matter of moment, every case of importance, came
directly before the First Presidency of the Church. In fact, affairs
of the most trifling importance—or at least that which we would now
consider of trifling importance—had to be submitted to them. Upon
their shoulders rested the responsibility of directing everything
connected with the work of God in its minutest details. But this has
changed. Instead of one High Council, instead of one Stake, there are
at least twenty-five. Instead of the First Presidency of the Church
presiding over High Councils, there are Presidencies of these various
Stakes and upon them rest the responsibilities which formerly rested
upon the First Presidency. There are stakes now in Zion, the number of
whose members far exceeds the number of members in the Church in those
early days. For years after we came to these valleys—or for some time
at least—the whole Church in these mountains did not number as many
souls as are now comprised within Salt Lake Stake. The responsibility,
therefore, is being divided. It rests upon a great number of men, and
as the people increase, this responsibility becomes more and more
divided. It is an impossibility now for the First Presidency to attend
to anything but general matters of business, giving general
instructions, and they find themselves under the necessity
more and more of dividing this, laying it upon the shoulders of other
men, calling helps from various quarters, to labor in various
directions, and to perform the work which in former times was deemed
especially their province. The Saints themselves find themselves under
the necessity of depending more upon themselves than they did
formerly. They cannot, in the multiplicity of cares and labors which
devolve upon leading men—they cannot expect that help, that attention
to minor affairs, that they formerly received.

Hence, my brethren and sisters, it is necessary that every man and
woman and child, connected with this work should learn as rapidly as
possible the habit of self-dependence—to exercise faith before God for
themselves, so that each one in his place or in her place, will be
able to perform his or her part to the acceptance of our God, and in
such a manner as to bring to pass their own salvation. This is much
more easy at the present time than it was in the past, from the fact
that doctrine is becoming better understood, the principles of the
Gospel are more thoroughly disseminated by the aid of all the various
agencies that are at work in our midst. Our children now receive in
the Primary Associations—as soon as they are able to comprehend
principle—such instruction as is adapted to their dawning intellects,
and from that to the Sunday school, and from the Sunday school to the
Young Men's and Young Women's Associations, and in the case of the
boys to the various councils of the Priesthood, and in the case of the
girls to the various Relief Societies. They are led along step by step
until they become thoroughly indoctrinated in principle, and
compre-hend in the broadest sense the character of the work with which
they are identified. Only this morning I had an opportunity of testing
this to some extent. My frequent absences from home give me but few
opportunities to meet with my children. But I said to them this
morning: “Instead of you going to Sunday school, I will have a Sunday
school at home.” I wanted to talk to them, to inquire of my little
ones concerning their knowledge of the principles of the Gospel, and I
was somewhat surprised at the replies which were made to my
interrogatories concerning this work, concerning its character,
concerning its doctrines and the principles that are taught by the
Elders. I presume that it is the case with all our children, and I
have no doubt from my observation, that at the present time there are
children quite small who are capable of giving replies to questions
which a few years ago many of our Elders could not answer. I am
pleased with this. I think it right.

As I have said this work is spreading to so great an extent that
responsibility must rest upon individual members. The Presidency of
the Church, the Twelve Apostles, the various presiding authorities,
can no longer do as they have done in years past—carry the people
along. The people themselves must learn to walk, to bear their own
burdens, to perform their own duties, and to take such a course as
will result in their own development, and in the advancement of this
great work that God has established upon the earth. I would not give
much for us, nor for our work, nor for our future, if the individual
intelligence of the people should not be developed. It would be an
impossibility for this work to achieve the high destiny in
store for it, and concerning which we have indulged in so many glowing
anticipations upon any other principle than this. We are told that
intelligence is the glory of God, and it certainly is the glory of
man. And with the obstacles that have to be overcome, that confront us
every step in our progress, there must be knowledge developed among
this people; there must be the highest attainment and grade of
intelligence developed among us. Upon no other principle can we stand.
Upon no other principle can we progress. Upon no other principle can
we accomplish the great results that we have before us. It is true we
testify that God has restored the everlasting Gospel in its primitive
simplicity, purity and power. We bear this testimony; but the
restoration of this alone, in and of itself, will not accomplish that
which we have before us, unless we avail ourselves of the advantages
which its restoration affords. We must put in practice and carry out
practically in our lives its principles. We must be a people who are
not only hearers of the word, but doers of it also. It will not do for
us to have a form of godliness without the power thereof. We must have
the power of the work that God has founded. We must put ourselves in a
position to receive the blessings and advantages connected with this
work, and to have these we must be a pure people—pure in thought, pure
in word, and pure in action. God through us is founding a new order of
things in the earth. The axe is laid at the root of the old tree, and
sooner or later it will be hewn down. The restoration of the
everlasting Gospel, the restoration of the powers connected therewith,
of the gifts, of the blessings, and especially of the union and the
peace that characterized it in ancient days, is bound eventually to
produce wonderful results in the earth. Already it is conceded that it
is a marvelous work and a wonder, just as the Prophet Isaiah said
would be the case. This must spread. From the nature of things it must
spread. It must continue to grow, to increase. The more obstacles it
has to contend with the better its power is developed, the better its
strength is exhibited. I am thankful myself for the difficulties we
have had to contend with. I am thankful that we have a hard pathway to
tread. I am thankful that we have opposition of so serious a
character. Without this we could not be developed. Without this we
could not be thoroughly tested, nor our principles be proved. It is by
such ordeals as these that man exhibits his divine origin, and the
qualities that he inherits from his divine Father. It is by such
ordeals as these that systems are tried, and that principles exhibit
their force and power to mankind. We are being tested as no other
people upon the face of the earth are being tested. The principles
that we have espoused and that we advocate are passing through such an
ordeal as the principles advocated by no other people are subjected
to. Every form of opposition is brought to bear; every kind of
influence is set in motion, not even stopping at violence itself. If
our principles withstand all these shocks and assaults upon them and
endure, they will prove to the world far better than our verbal
testimony will that they are of divine origin. If the organization of
this Church cannot be broken up by the attacks of mobs, by the
uprooting of the people, by the driving of them forth into the
wilderness, by the attacks of townships, of cities, of counties,
of States, or by the adverse legislation of the United States
itself, then the world will be more likely to believe that which we
solemnly assert, that God is its author, that God laid its foundation,
that God has preserved it thus far, and that He will preserve it to
the very end. These are proofs of that which we testify. That it has
thus withstood all these assaults, we are living witnesses. That we
exist today in our present organized capacity in these mountains is
due to the capacity of the organization to adapt itself to every
change of circumstances. Men may sneer, men may deride, men may
publish false statements, men may attribute all this to various causes
which are untrue; but the fact still remains uncontrovertible and
unassailable, that there is a power and a strength and an elasticity
about the organization of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints that all that is brought against it fails to unsettle or to
shiver. Now we have been testifying—that is, some of the Elders
have—for these 53 years that this work had this capacity. Joseph Smith
stated it in the outset before the Church itself was organized. The
first Elders of this Church bore similar testimony when but six
members comprised the entire Church of Jesus Christ. They predicted
its future. They stated that it possessed these divine qualities. They
solemnly declared that God had restored it from the heavens; that it
was the old organization brought back again; that it was the old
Gospel restored once more to the earth, and that it would win its way
in every land and among every people, and that it would accomplish all
that God had predicted by the mouths of His holy prophets that it
should accomplish. But who believed it? No more believed it then than
can be found now to believe our testimony, that which we bear this
day, that this work, notwithstanding all the opposition it may have to
contend with—notwithstanding it may have every power on earth to
oppose it, that it will win its way until it will fill the whole
earth. There were probably no more who believed the testimony of the
early Elders respecting the growth of the work than are to be found to
believe our testimony now concerning its future. But fifty-three years
have passed, and in their passage it has been demonstrated that it
possesses the qualities and powers that were claimed for it by those
who declared the testimony in the beginning. Wonderful it must have
seemed in the early days when they all could meet together within a
log schoolhouse—wonderful it must have seemed to them when their minds
were enlightened by the Spirit of God, and they looked down and saw
the future of this work—its growth, development and advancement, and
the mighty results it would accomplish—it must have seemed wonderful,
I say, to them at that time with their surroundings. But if there is
anything that shows clearly how God dealt with this people and how
plainly He could reveal His mind and will to them, it is the fact that
those who lived in those days, and whose writings have been left,
whose testimonies are on record—saw with extraordinary clearness that
which we now behold and the far greater results that are yet to be
reached in the future. They saw it with plainness, they saw it with
wonderful clearness and predicted concerning it as though they were
writing contemporaneous history; and that which they testified to, as
I have said, has
been proved so far as we have gone.

There has been no lack about this work. Its principles have withstood
all that has been brought against them. They stand unshaken because
they are founded on eternal truth. The whole clergy of the world may
array themselves against them, as they have to a certain extent; they
may endeavor to controvert these principles, but they are founded on
truth and they cannot be overturned. Not a single principle that has
been declared or been testified to by the Elders of this Church from
the beginning up to the present time can be assailed successfully by
any religionist, nor by scientific men, because they are impregnable,
having had their origin in God. And so it is with everything connected
with this work. It has never taken a step backward. It never will take
a step backward. There are no mistakes to be corrected connected with
it, either with its doctrine, with its organization, or, with its
movement. Who is there—I speak to you, my brethren and sisters, who
have been connected with this Church from the beginning—who is there
that can recall a single instance of recantation of any of its
principles? Has there ever been a doctrine declared by the authorities
of this Church, as a part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they
have had to take back or modify? Not one. Has there been anything in
the organization that has had to be perfected? No. The organization
was as perfect in theory—being revealed of God—50 years ago as it is
today in practice, after years of experience, practically carrying it
out in these mountains. That constitutes the strength of this work. It
is its infallibility. Not that man connected with it is infallible,
for he is fallible; but the work itself, its principles, and
everything connected with it, is infallible, having a divine origin,
being revealed of God. It was a wonderful thing to state, as was
stated right at the outset of this work, that it should be preached in
every land, that its doctrine should be proclaimed in every tongue
throughout the world, and that it should gather from every nation
under heaven, men and women who should be numbered as its converts. A
remarkable feature, something unheard of, that the principles of this
religion when preached should have the effect to gather out from every
nation, kindred, tongue and people those who espoused them. Yet every
word has been fulfilled. Wherever the Elders of this Church have gone
they have gone accompanied by that wonderful power, the power of
gathering the people together; not of one race, not of one language,
but people of every race and of every language, showing the
adaptability of its principles to the people of the frozen north as
well as to those of the torrid south. Wherever these principles have
been proclaimed they have gathered out from the nations unto whom they
were proclaimed those who have espoused them, and as I have remarked
here before, there is no power short of violence that can prevent
these people from thus coming together. It has not been the inducement
of the Elder; it has not been by persuasion; it has not been any
influence of this character that they have sought to wield over the
people that has gathered them together. They have come of their own
accord. They have forsaken home, friends, old associations, ancestral
tombs, and everything of this character that is calculated to bind
men to their native
land; they have severed all these and have
gathered out and cast their lots with the people of their faith in
these mountains. And this has been a peculiar feature of this work
from the very commencement, and it will continue to be as long as the
Gospel is preached. And it is this wonderful union, this Godlike
union, that bears testimony that it is from God.

I do not wish to say anything in relation to other forms of religion;
I do not know that it is necessary that I should do so; but no
thinking man can admit that Christianity so-called—I call it a false
Christianity, untrue to its name—satisfies the wants of humanity at
the present time. It is not a religion that satisfies. It comes short
in almost every particular. It is devoid of all the powers that
characterized it and gave it force in the early days. You look in vain
for those features that distinguished it, and that gave it power in
the earth and that made it the foe of Paganism and false religions
existing in those days, and which gave it the wonderful success it
achieved. It is destitute of these features. It is divided, split into
hundreds of sects, without power, having a form of godliness, but
lacking the power thereof. It cannot stand; it cannot prevail.
Monstrous as its power is, great as its growth is, co-extensive with
the world it may be said, it nevertheless is destined to tumble with
Babylon the great. It must go down. It has not the elements of
strength. And the great cause of its weakness is, that God is not with
it. God's power does not accompany it. Men in too many instances are
Christian because it is popular to be so. But where is the power of
Christianity? Where are the revelations of God? The idea of God having
a church on the earth, and never speaking His mind and will unto that
church! Why, I will not worship a God who will not speak. He is as
Baal of old. I want nothing to do with him. I want the God of heaven,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a God who can speak and who can
manifest His mind and His will, who can guide His people, who can
bestow gifts and blessings upon His people, who can hear and answer
their prayers when they call upon him. I want a God of that kind if I
can find Him, and I thank God that I have found Him, and that He has
revealed Himself in these last days, and has established His Church as
He did in ancient days, and has endowed it with the same powers that
the ancient church possessed, and it has to undergo the same trials
and temptations and the same persecution that the ancient church did.
The blood of its members has flown. They have been slain for the
testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, for claiming to be
Prophets, for claiming to be apostles, for claiming to be servants of
God, just the same as the ancient servants of God did. We, today in
these mountains are here because we have been driven out, not
permitted to enjoy those blessings that as free men and free women,
born free, we were justly entitled to—that is, the right to worship
our God according to the dictates of our own consciences. We are
therefore a standing protest against religious tyranny, and while God
gives us breath, we shall always be found defending the right of every
human being to worship his God or her God according to his or her
conscience, without anything to molest or to make afraid, as long as
in that worship they do not trespass upon the rights of their
neighbors.

Now, my brethren and sisters, as
I said in the beginning,
there is a great responsibility resting upon us individually. Our
children must grow up understanding these principles, willing to
endure everything for them, strong in the Lord to bear them off, and
to maintain purity in the earth. The devil has raised every sort of
cry against these Latter-day Saints, throwing dust in the eyes of the
people concerning us, making the world believe that we are unfit to
live, that it would be doing God service to kill us off, making them
believe that we are the most impure and the most corrupt people on the
face of the earth. Why, who has done these things? Men who are steeped
in corruption, up to their lips in it, and who cannot comprehend
purity. And this has been the cry: “Kill them off, they are unworthy to
live; it will be doing God service to destroy them.” And yet in these
mountains the virtue of woman is held sacred. There was a time when a
woman was as safe in our streets, or in our remote byways, as she
would be in a strongly guarded house or castle. A woman could travel
from the northern boundary of our Territory to the southern, without
hearing a word of disrespect or seeing a gesture or anything of that
character that would annoy her. But how has it been of late years?
Why, women are unsafe in the streets. There was a time when
drunkenness was unknown in this land. How is it now? In spite of our
protest, in spite of everything we can do—because we have not the
power, being a Territory, to carry out our laws or to maintain
them—drunkenness runs riot, and it is the constant effort on the part
of every man who has a family, and every leading man, to guard our
youth against these devilish influences that are growing on every
hand. We say to our boys: it is the worst crime you can commit short
of murder, to be guilty of illicit intercourse with the other sex. I
would rather carry my son to the grave than that he should be guilty
of such a thing. We say: “Marry the sisters, marry the daughters of
Eve, take to yourselves lawful wives, but you shall not commit
adultery, you shall not commit seduction, you shall not commit
fornication; if you do, God will curse you, and we will sever you from
the Church.” We say to our daughters that it is one of the worst
crimes they can commit to be guilty of unchastity. We want to raise up
a righteous seed in these mountains, pure and virtuous, so that a man
will be so virtuous that he may be in the company of an unprotected
woman alone for any length of time, and she would be as safe as if she
were in heaven, or under the guardianship of an angel, safe from
pollution, safe from everything that is vile. We want to teach our
children to be sober, to be industrious, to be truthful, to be honest,
to love God, and to love their neighbor; for they can best show their
love for God by exhibiting their love for their neighbor. If they
cannot love him whom they see, how can they love Him whom they have
not seen? Let us take these things to heart, and let us be watchful
and use all our influence to protect the rising generation against
those sins that are sweeping over the earth, and God will bless us in
our efforts in so doing. I pray God that He will bless you, in the
name of Jesus. Amen.